Before you begin. This procedure is general reference information, not professional advice. Equipment varies by manufacturer, model, and year. Always follow the documentation supplied with your equipment — where it differs from this page, follow the manufacturer. Verify that you have the tools, the working conditions, and the ability to do this task safely. If anything is unclear, if the equipment is damaged, or if the task exceeds your experience, stop and use a qualified professional. You are responsible for your own safety and for the outcome. This site accepts no liability for any loss, damage, or injury arising from the use of this information.
Specifications marked unverified could not be traced to a manufacturer source. Do not rely on them — obtain the value from your equipment documentation.
Almost every useful thing you can do with an appliance starts with its model number. Checking whether it has been recalled, ordering the right part, booking a repair, claiming under a warranty, proving a loss to an insurer — all of them need it, and all of them need it at the worst possible moment, when the machine is already broken or the recall is already in the news. This page is the boring hour that makes those moments easy. Do it once for the whole house, keep the record in two places, and you will never again be lying on the kitchen floor with a torch trying to read a label behind a dishwasher.
What this page will not do is tell you where the label is. That varies by manufacturer and by model, and it varies within a single product class: two CPSC refrigerator recalls describe the label as being on the top left of the interior in one case and on a serial plate inside the compartment in another. So the location is published here as an instruction to look, with the usual hiding places listed, rather than as a fact. The other thing worth knowing before you start: a recall notice identifies affected units by model number and by a range of serial numbers, so recording only the model number gets you halfway and can leave you guessing about your own machine.
ASK A SECOND PERSON FOR HELP BEFORE YOU MOVE A LARGE APPLIANCE.
A large appliance can fall and injure you.
| Item | Note |
|---|---|
| Camera or phone | Use the camera to make a photograph of each rating plate. |
| Flashlight | Many rating plates are in a dark space. |
| Notebook or spreadsheet | The record must be legible after ten years. |
| Soft cloth optional | Use the cloth to clean a dirty rating plate. |
Estimated 8 min to 13 min
Estimated 7 min to 14 min
No tier-1 source was found for this value. Take it from the documentation supplied with your equipment.
DISCONNECT THE PLUG FROM THE ELECTRICAL OUTLET BEFORE YOU MOVE AN APPLIANCE.
A damaged cord can give you an electric shock.
Estimated 4 min (partly estimated)
No tier-1 source was found for this value. Take it from the documentation supplied with your equipment.
Do not confuse the model number with the serial number.
A recall notice uses both numbers.
Estimated 3 min
Keep the record in a private location.
A record of your equipment is also a list of the property in your home.
Estimated 6 min to 16 min
Source: GE Appliances, a Haier Company, Recalls Bottom Freezer, French Door Refrigerators Due to Fall Hazard (Recall 22-117) · tier 1 · accessed 2026-07-29
This page uses one term for each item and holds it throughout, as ASD-STE100 requires. Equipment sellers and other guides use the names below for the same parts.
Do not move a large appliance alone. Ask a second person for help. A technician can read the numbers for you during a service visit.
Stop if you must disconnect the appliance from the water supply or from the gas supply to see the label. Speak to a qualified technician. The numbers are not worth the risk of a leak.
Stop if the label is not legible. Do not guess a character. Speak to the customer service department of the manufacturer. The manufacturer can identify the appliance from the documentation or from the receipt.
There is no general answer, which is exactly why this page tells you to look rather than printing a location. Two CPSC refrigerator recalls make the point: one describes the brand, model and serial number as being on a label at the top of the left side inside the refrigerator compartment, and another describes a serial plate inside the compartment. The usual places to check are the inner frame of the door, under or behind a drawer, the back panel, and the underside. If none of those work, the manual for your model will say.
The model number identifies the design — every unit of that design shares it. The serial number identifies your individual machine and is unique to it. Recalls need both: a CPSC notice typically lists the affected model numbers and then narrows the recall to serial numbers within a stated range or beginning with certain letters. Recording only the model number tells you that your appliance might be affected without telling you whether it actually is.
Because you always need them at the least convenient moment. Recall checks, spare parts, warranty claims, service bookings and insurance loss lists all key off these numbers, and by the time you need one the machine is usually broken, dark, or full of water. There is also the case where the appliance is gone entirely, after a fire or a theft, and the record is the only proof of what you owned.
Take the photo — it captures the certification marks and the electrical data you did not think to copy — but transcribe the two numbers as well. A photograph is not searchable, and a folder of forty label photos is not something you will enjoy scrolling through when a recall is announced. Do both: the typed row for searching, the photo for everything you did not type.
Search the CPSC recall register at cpsc.gov for the manufacturer or product type, then match your model number against the list in the notice and your serial number against the stated range. Both have to match. If your model appears but your serial number is outside the range, your unit is not part of that recall, and the notice usually gives a phone number or a website to confirm.
Do not guess a character, because a wrong digit sends you a part that does not fit. Contact the manufacturer's customer service with whatever you can read plus the purchase date and retailer; they can usually identify the unit from that. Kidde's support documentation is a good example of manufacturers publishing exactly where their own identification label sits, so check the manufacturer's support pages before you give up.
Every specification on this page is traced to one of these sources. Tier 1 is a manufacturer document, a published standard, or a government safety authority. See Standards for the full tiering rule.
Current version 1 · updated 2026-07-29 · next review due 2027-07-29
Corrections to this page are listed in the public corrections log. Reports that are credible and not yet verified are listed in the public errata register, and an open one renders above the step it concerns.
Found an error? A correction with a manufacturer source is applied and logged publicly. You can also write to corrections@fixchecklist.com.
Every step above carries its own report control, which tags the report with that step so a correction reaches the right place. For anything about the procedure as a whole — the order of the sections, a step that is missing, something that did not match your equipment — use this: report something about this whole procedure.